Brian Kirk hasn’t totally sealed the deal for Thor 2 just yet, but he’s eyeing another new project that could come afterward. Kirk has entered talks to direct a rodeo romance titled Paper Wings, which Tom Cruise is developing and will probably star in. Writer Leslie Bohem (Dante’s Peak) and producer Marty Bowen initially developed the idea in 2005, and set the film up at New Line in 2006, but progress has been slow-going since then. The talks with Kirk are the first new development since a table read last year with potential stars Cruise, Will Smith, Anna Kendrick, and others. Read more after the jump.

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“What happened to Olivia Thirlby?” I asked this very question to a friend a couple weeks back, while riding the tube in London. The actress broke onto the scene with a small role in the Paul Greengrass-directed Oscar-nominated United 93, and proceeded to go on a tear, starring in some of my favorite indie films of 2007/2008: David Gordon Green’s underrated adaptation of Snow Angels, Jason Reitman’s Oscar-nominated film Juno, and Jonathan Levine’s The Wackness. She has since made appearances in a few New York City-short films, including Brett Ratner’s segment of New York, I Love You, Daryl Wein’s SXSW mumblecore romantic comedy Breaking Upwards, and John Hindman’s The Answer Man.

Many people I’ve talked to believed this now-23-year-old actress had the potential to be Hollywood’s next big thing (and I too was on the bandwagon). And not for a lack of trying, Thirlby was called in to audition for a role in George Miller’s scrapped Justice League movie and the role of Trixie in The Wachowski Brothers’ Speed Racer. But she seems to have disappeared from the indie spotlight as of late.

Good news: Thirlby has landed a role in a big budget film produced by Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted/Nightwatch). The science fiction action story follows a group of American tourists visiting Moscow Russia when an alien invasion occurs.